Apple

The Nexus One is at the center of Apple's ongoing suit against HTC for patent infringement.

(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

Sometimes it doesn't take more than a cease-and-desist letter, or some good backroom negotiating skills, for Apple to get what it wants.

The use of the term "pod" was one such case. Getting the trademark on the name "iPhone" was another. But plenty of times Apple turned to lawyers and mounds of paperwork to defend its intellectual property, or more often, defend itself.

The most recent legal wrangling Apple has engaged in willingly is the high-profile suit against HTC, maker of smartphones like the Eris and Nexus One. It's assumed by many to be a thinly veiled shot at Google, which makes the Android operating system that runs on those phones. When Apple filed the legal complaint earlier this month, CEO Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."

That, of course, goes both ways. In the past three years, Apple has been on the receiving end of may patent suits related to almost every aspect of its business: the iPhone, Apple TV, iPhone apps, employees, accessories, and the Mac itself. Here's a look back at some of Apple's more interesting intellectual property-related legal dustups.

January 2010 -- Kodak v. Apple
Earlier this year Kodak targeted Apple's iPhone along with competitor RIM's BlackBerry. The photo company accused both of illegally using a digital imaging patent it owns to preview images. But Kodak took its claims against Apple a few steps further, filing two more suits: One accuses Apple of violating two patents related to image preview and the ability to process images of different resolutions.The second claims infringement by Apple in a process by which one computer program can call on another to carry out certain functions. The first suit relates specifically to the iPhone, while the second is being targeted against any Apple product using that specific process.

October 2009 -- Nokia v. Apple
Nokia sued Apple over 10 patents the Finnish phone maker says it owns related to wireless handsets. The largest handset maker in the world took legal action when negotiations failed and Apple refused to pay to license any of the patents. Nokia has already reached licensing agreement on the patents in question with 40 other companies, including "most of the major device makers," according to Nokia. Apple returned the favor shortly after, countersuing Nokia over 13 patents it owns including mobile technologies related to real-time signal processing methods, list scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touch-screen display.

May 2009 -- Tune Hunter v. everyone
Apple was named along with several other companies in Tune Hunter's patent infringement dispute with popular iPhone app Shazam. Shazam "listens" to songs and identifies them, and is available on a variety of mobile and Web platforms. Tune Hunter found Shazam's methods too close to its own patent for "a music identification/purchasing system," and sued almost every company tangentially related to Shazam, including Apple, AT&T, Samsung, Amazon.com, Napster, Motorola, Gracenote, Verizon Wireless, LG Electronics, and Pantech Wireless.

December 2008 -- EZ4Media v. Apple
It might be just a "hobby" for Apple, but the Apple TV was also lawsuit fodder. Set-top box maker EZ4Media claimed that Apple TV, AirPort Express, and Macintosh computers infringe on patents owned by the Illinois-based company. The patents were obtained by EZ4Media from Universal Electronics. EZ4Media filed the lawsuit because it found it very curious that the Apple TV was introduced a little over a year after Apple's hiring of three former Universal Electronics employees that had had access to inside information about the workings of Universal Electronics' set-top technology.

July 2008 -- Apple v. Psystar
You'd have to have been blind in both eyes not to have seen this one coming. Though Apple waited three months after Florida-based Psystar began selling its own non-Mac computers with Mac OS X installed, it was obvious to most industry observers Apple wasn't going to let this one slide. Apple eventually pounced, accusing Psystar of breaking Apple's Mac OS X user license agreement, which allows the software to be installed only on Apple-branded machinery, along with copyright infringement, induced copyright infringement, and trademark infringement.
Apple prevailed in the end. A judge ruled that Psystar violated Apple's exclusive reproduction right, distribution right, and right to create derivative works, and ordered the company to immediately stop selling its Mac clones. Psystar also agreed to pay Apple $2.65 million in damages.

May 2008 -- Man & Machine v. Apple, CBS
A Maryland company came out swinging against the odd couple of Apple and CBS over the rights to the name "Mighty Mouse." Man & Machine claimed its chemical-resistant and waterproof mouse, called Mighty Mouse, was being sold to hospitals a year before Apple came out with its single-button mouse of the same name. CBS (the publisher of CNET) was ensnared in the suit because owns the rights to the Mighty Mouse cartoon and had licensed the use of the name to Apple. The network was named in the lawsuit because Man & Machine says it doesn't have the right to license the name. Both Man & Machine and CBS had trademark applications filed for the name.

December 2007 -- Klausner v. Apple
The holder of a patent on visual voicemail took on two much bigger opponents before turning its sights on Apple. After eliciting huge damages payouts from AOL and Vonage, Klausner sued Apple for patent infringement involving the visual voice mail system used in the iPhone. The case never went to trial. Apple avoided that by signing a license for the technology in question.

Summer 1999 -- Apple v. iMac rip-offs
Between July and August 1999, Apple went on the offensive against iMac lookalikes. The company sued Daewoo, E-machines, and Sotec over desktops that resembled its colorful all-in-one machine a little too closely. Apple's litigation against the companies alleged violations of trade dress, which refers to the distinctive style or look of a product. Apple argued that the all-in-one systems from its competitors were too similar to the iMac in design and would cause confusion among Apple customers. Apple eventually prevailed, though it wasn't a given that they would at the time. Historically, courts had not extended trademark protection to a product's design. But at the time they were just beginning to grant trademark protection to "stylized" items on the grounds that novel industrial design can communicate a distinctive idea or image.

Apple's right to name its one-button mouse Mighty Mouse came under legal fire from a company with a mouse of the same name.

(Credit: Apple)

February 1998 -- Imatec v. Apple
A two-year legal battle ensued before Imatec's suit against Apple's ColorSync software was dismissed. A district court rejected the $1.1 billion lawsuit filed by New York-based Imatec in 1998. The suit alleged that Apple had infringed three U.S. patents related to color calibration of computer equipment filed by Imatec President Hanoch Shalit. A judge eventually determined that neither Imatec nor Shalit owned the patents in question. ColorSync was an Apple product that allowed users to ensure that colors in printed documents closely match the colors that appear on a computer screen.

1988 -- Apple v. Microsoft and HP
The most famous Mac v. Windows battle is also the most infamous Apple-related litigation. Apple tried to sue Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard to stop them from using graphical user interface elements that looked a lot like those in Apple's Lisa and Mac OS. Apple in this case, did not prevail. The court ruled that the copyright law at the time did not allow patent protection for "the idea of a graphical user interface, or the idea of a desktop metaphor."

To confuse matters even further, in the middle of that case, Xerox decided to sue Apple for the same thing, alleging that Apple's interface was too closely based on an unlicensed Xerox graphical user interface. That lawsuit was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.

Apple's suit against Microsoft and HP was almost entirely a failure. All of the claims were dismissed with the exception of one: the court ruled that the trash can and folder icons from HP's software did infringe. Apple did appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court declined to hear the case.

iPad orders are pouring in before most people have even gotten their hands on one.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Few outside of Apple have seen an iPad in person, but that hasn't stopped a rush of preorders for the touch-screen tablet device.

Sources have told The Wall Street Journal that Apple has "sold hundreds of thousands" of iPads since the device went on presale March 12. If this keeps up, Apple could end up selling more iPads in the first three months than original iPhones sold the first three months after its debut, according to those sources.

It's unclear if that means actual sales only, or if that includes reservations for in-store pickups of the device. Apple.com is taking reservations for customers who want to pick up a device in a store on the first day of sale, April 3, but it doesn't require a credit card to be put down. That means if they don't pick up the device by 3 p.m. that day the iPad reservation is canceled. In other words, a reservation should not yet be counted as a sale, but again it's not entirely clear how the iPad presales are being counted.

Also of note in the Journal's story: Apple is coming down to the wire on striking content deals for the iPad. Negotiations are ongoing between Apple and media companies for discounted TV shows via iTunes, according to the Journal's sources. Partnerships between Apple and newspapers, magazines, and textbook publishers are also still yet to be cemented, and have "been put on the backburner" in favor of other types of content, the report says.

Besides content, some accessories for the touch-screen device are also a little behind schedule. Both the keyboard dock/charging station and the 10W USB power adapter won't be available until May.

iGroups is a social-networking and location-sharing app developed by Apple.

(Credit: Patently Apple)

Looks like Apple may be the latest to succumb to the geomadness gripping the mobile-development space right now.

Patently Apple dug up an Apple patent application Thursday for a social-networking service called iGroups that uses geographic location data to connect iPhone and other mobile-device users.

iGroups would let friend groups attending an event to stay in touch and share information in real time. If that sounds familiar it's because similar geolocation apps that accomplish the same thing are popping up more frequently--apps like Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, Loopt, and others. According to the patent, iGroups is a bit different underneath, however. Using Apple's MobileMe service, iGroups users who don't have GPS on their phone can still participate in the stream of information sharing with "virtual GPS," according to the patent.

Apple files for many patents, and just doing so doesn't automatically mean there's an actual product on the way. But this particular patent is interesting, not only because of the geofrenzy taking place right now, but because of what happened last summer. Though Google Voice getting rejected from the App Store got a lot more attention, Apple refused entry to Google Latitude on the iPhone too. Latitude allows users to broadcast their location to their friends, which sounds similar to iGroups.

Another clue there may be more to come on this front? Several months after the Latitude skirmish, Apple purchased a company called PlaceBase, and the founder and CEO Jaron Waldman, became a member of Apple's "Geo Team."

Apple board member Jerome B. (Jerry) York has died, Apple announced Thursday.

York, 71, was hospitalized Tuesday night after suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage.

He sat on Apple's board for 13 years, and was also the chairman, president, and CEO of Harwinton Capital. Previously he held the position of CFO at both IBM and Chrysler.

"Jerry joined Apple's Board in 1997 when most doubted the company's future. He has been a pillar of financial and business expertise and insight on our Board for over a dozen years," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, in a statement Thursday. "It's been a privilege to know and work with Jerry, and I'm going to miss him a lot."

York was born in Memphis, Tenn., in 1938. He graduated from the United States Military Academy, and received master's degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan.

(Credit: Amazon)

First came the Kindle electronic book reader device itself. Then the applications for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and for Windows. Now Amazon has brought the e-reader software to Mac OS X.

The Kindle for Mac beta version, as with the other apps and devices, lets people read electronic books they've purchased through Amazon's Kindle Store, the U.S. version of which currently has 450,000 books for sale.

The free software lets people purchase new books, read books they've already bought, view notes and highlights but not make new ones, and synchronize bookmarks and the last page read across other Kindle technology.

A future version of the software will add full-text search and the ability to make notes, Amazon said. The software requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

Amazon also is working on a version of Kindle for Apple's iPad, a device that already comes with Apple's own electronic book technology.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple is instituting a ban on all protective screen film products from its online and retail stores starting in May, according to iLounge, which cites several companies familiar with the matter. If it happens, the move will take away some of Apple's most popular third-party products. But what for?

Apparently, the ban is going to cover both film-only products and cases that incorporate protective screens. It applies to products both decorative and protective across all Apple product lines. And while the company reportedly didn't give vendors an explicit reason for the move, some have speculated that it's an attempt by Apple to promote its screen durability claims.

It's certainly not due to lack of popularity. The No. 1-selling iPhone and iPod cases are anti-glare film, and they're the sixth and seventh most popular iPhone and iPod accessories overall, according to iLounge.

Of course, these products will still be available through channels outside of the Apple Store, which makes it even more puzzling. If people want a film screen for their iPod, iPhone, or Mac, they're going to be able to find it whether it's in the Apple Store or not. And when they do, that's business Apple's missing out on.

We have contacted Apple for comment and will update this post as soon as we hear back.

This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.

When Apple unveiled the iPad in January, it also introduced several accessories for the device, but not all of them will be available when the iPad ships April 3.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple has five accessories for the iPad: a keyboard dock, case, dock, 10W USB power adapter, and dock connector to VGA adapter.

The ship date for the iPad keyboard dock, a device that combines a dock for charging your iPad with a full-size keyboard, has been pushed back to May, according to a story on Electronista. The 10W USB power adapter, which lets you charge your iPad directly through an electrical outlet, has also been delayed until May.

The iPad case will now ship in mid-April, according to the Apple Store.

Apple representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Two iPad accessories will ship on the same day as the iPad. The iPad dock and the iPad dock connector to VGA adapter are both scheduled to ship on April 3, the same day the iPad ships.

Once your iPad's battery conks out, Apple will give you a new device, but it'll cost you.

As with the iPhone, the rechargeable lithium-polymer battery in the soon-to-be-released Apple iPad is not user-replaceable, meaning you have to send the gadgets to Apple for servicing. And under the iPad Battery Replacement Service you'll get a new iPad to go with that new battery.

(Credit: Apple)

But the service won't come cheap. It'll cost you $99 plus $6.95 shipping for a grand total of $105.95 per unit. You may also have to pay local taxes on the deal.

The purchase price for the iPad itself starts at $499 for a Wi-Fi-only version with 16GB of memory and ranges up to $829 for the Wi-Fi + 3G edition with 64GB of memory.

Apple will replace your iPad only if the battery has lost its charge through normal use. So if you make your battery kaput by spilling hot coffee on your iPad or accidentally dropping the device out the window, you're out of luck.

And beware that the replacement iPad won't have any of your personal data on it. You'll need to make sure you have a fresh backup of your contacts, calendars, e-mail account, and other information. That's one reason why it's a good idea to sync your iPad with iTunes on a regular basis.

To get your replacement iPad, you can contact Apple Tech Support or visit a local Apple Store or authorized service center. Apple says you can expect service to be done within a week after you send in your old iPad.

iPhone and iPod owners know that Apple makes it a practice to sell devices without user-replaceable batteries and then charge a healthy fee to replace them. Many iPhone customers were initially miffed that they couldn't replace their phone's batteries themselves, with one unhappy customers even filing a lawsuit against Apple.

iPhone owners with dead batteries pay $79 plus tax to get a new battery within the warranty period. iPod users have to cough up anywhere from $49 to $59 to get a new battery installed, while iPod Touch owners pay $79 for the same privilege. Of course, for people who don't want to spend that much money, there are ways of replacing the battery yourself.

The iPad is due in stores April 3, and preorders have already begun.

See also: FAQ: All about the Apple iPad

iPhone and iPod Touch owners could breathe a sigh of relief when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad.

Apple's highly anticipated tablet computer would not, after all, require purchasing all new applications. Instead, everything in the App Store would automatically work on the iPad. As Jobs explained, tapping one button on the iPad screen transforms apps made for the 3.1-inch iPhone/iPod Touch screen to a snugger fit on the 9.7-inch iPad.

Simple, right? For the iPad owner, sure. But the iPad means bigger changes for the people who create these apps. Though the iPad has been dismissed by some as an oversized iPod Touch, it's definitely not, as those who attempt to make iPad apps or re-create iPhone apps for it will find out fast.

That includes people like Michael Groves, who is half of a two-person development team at Wandering Pig Studios. He currently has two apps on the store, TapBox and a snow globe app. Groves, like most of his peers, is excited about the iPad. The extra screen real estate on the 9.7-inch device is a big deal, mostly because apps that were a no-go on the relatively small iPhone screen might actually work on the iPad.

"We're starting to work on a game we originally positioned as an iPhone app, and it died because of the screen size issue. Now it will be our next project," on the iPad, Groves said.

Griffin's iTalk app for iPhone

(Credit: Griffin)

But bigger isn't necessarily better in all cases. Cameron Daigle, a Web and interaction designer for Griffin, which makes all sorts of Apple accessories, says that like moving from a cramped apartment to a three-bedroom house in the suburbs, it will probably take app makers awhile to get used to all that space.

"What those (developers) are going to find is that the iPad has five times as much screen space, and your little app is going to look funny on there," Daigle said. "It's going to be interesting to see how people grow their apps to fill that space. You'll see a lot of awkwardly sparse and awkwardly cluttered apps as people figure out how to use that space."

Groves is also dealing with this problem. One of his apps is a game called Tap Box, in which players tap various colored blocks as they fly across the screen in changing patterns. Players advance by tapping all of the bad blocks as they try to make it off the screen.

"The interesting thing, on a much bigger screen size the game becomes a lot easier," Groves said. "If you have larger targets with larger screen, you'll not have as much of an appeal as far as maintaining a (certain) challenge level."

For Groves, just having users click the 2x button Apple will put on the iPad screen will likely kill his app--if it's not fun, who will buy it? So he has to basically rework his app from scratch to make it a decent experience on the iPad. So he will have to figure out a way to make his game more difficult.

Daigle, who has worked on Griffin's iTalk voice-recording app, among others, says very simple apps like Griffin's (the entire app consists of approximately seven elements) also won't automatically benefit just from being larger. Making a button three times as big as the one on the iPhone app might look silly. It's figuring out how to fill all that extra space that becomes the most important hurdle to overcome. That means rethinking what elements go on the screen, how big they are, and how users will interact with each element, all of which are things they're working on as you read this.

Of course, many apps will translate to the large screen beautifully, like the ones we've already seen at the iPad introduction. Visually rich interactive games like Nova by GameLoft can only improve by being reworked and magnified. And MLB's At Bat app benefits from being able to surface more info for stats-loving baseball geeks. It's obviously not a coincidence as far as the apps chosen by Apple to demo the iPad--they make Apple's new platform look good.

A sample of what the MLB At Bat app will look like on the iPad.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

The iPad introduction event was not just a marketing strategy, it was also a subtle challenge to would-be iPad app makers. Apple set the bar really high with its own iPad apps. By demonstrating the likes of iBooks and iCal, applications which are very rich, distinct, and interactive, Apple is signaling to developers what they can and should do with this new platform.

"The iPad will require much more effort from a developer standpoint," Groves said. "You have to put time into designing a workable interface that feels like it uses the screen size."

Instead of a few weeks to make a cookie-cutter iPhone app, standing out next to iBooks or iCal will probably take a few months, depending on the number of developers who can work on it. For Groves, it's just him and another designer. At a large mobile developer shop like GameLoft, which has 60 games on the App Store, and 800 developers who work on the iPhone platform, it still means more work to upgrade to iPad-ready apps.

MLB At Bat for iPhone

(Credit: MLB)

Though it's extra work, it's worth it, says Daigle, because App Store shoppers will take notice. "There will be a big difference between a good, paid app and a free app," he said. "Free apps are going to look pretty free."

And that's not meant to denigrate free apps at all, but to say that the gap between well-designed apps and poorly thought-out ones should be very obvious. Just allowing users to click the 2x button to scale up is an OK solution, but it's not something designers and developers should rely on, according to Daigle.

"Scaling up never looks good--it doesn't look good in Photoshop, much less something you're interacting with," he said. "Apple is doing that to provide a little bit of a transitional period. But people are never going to be happy with scaling."

TapBox as it looks on an iPhone screen

(Credit: Wandering Pig Studios)

But there are other things developers need to think about too. Increased size also equals increased weight--the iPad weighs in at 1.5 pounds, the iPhone 3GS at just one third of a pound. Apps that require any sort of movement or shaking, like the Bump app for example, won't be a natural way to use the iPad.

Groves says that worries him about his snow globe app, wpSnow. You shake an iPhone or iPod Touch with his app open and snowflakes float down onto the Christmas tree. "Not many people have held an iPad. My concern is that app (requires) the user to move the phone around a lot. With the heft of the iPad, will that cause an issue with user interaction? Will users drop the pad if they're swinging it around a lot?"

Clearly, this will be a learn-as-you-go process for iPad developers. While they have access to the software development kit (SDK), it only contains a simulator. Few people outside of Apple have yet to touch an iPad, and until April 3, when the device hits stores, app makers will likely have a learning process ahead of them. But for designers like Daigle who look forward to the direction the iPad is moving mobile computing in, it's exciting, since it's clear the iPad is just the beginning of a lot more changes in store.

"I think the iPhone/iPod Touch has been a training ground of sorts to get people used to this interface and concepts," said Daigle. "I think we'll look back at when iPhone first came out, (when app design meant a) top bar, bottom bar, and space in the middle. Apple did that on purpose, releasing the smaller design (of the iPhone) first to get people used to it...If they had released iPad first people would have been overwhelmed."